One, holy, counter-cultural and apostolic

True, good and beautiful: Chartres Cathedral, the site of many a conversion (Getty)

Why I Am Catholic (And You Should Be Too)

by Brandon Vogt, Ave Maria Press, £16.99

Eight years ago, Brandon Vogt was “a young man with an apparently well-functioning brain”. But then he became a Catholic. Friends and family were, and remain, profoundly confused: anything but Catholic, surely?

These days Vogt works for his mentor Bishop Robert Barron’s Word On Fire ministries. Although it does include a moving account of his first Confession, his book is not a conversion memoir. Instead, it is an appeal for others to think hard about what the Church has to offer, an appeal structured around the three great transcendentals. Catholicism, Vogt argues, is true, good and beautiful. These are the things that ultimately drew him in. They are three paths that “all converge at the door of the Catholic Church”.

His book is also an appeal to “join the rebellion”. Choosing to be Catholic is provocative. Vogt points out, probably rightly, that one might announce that one was exploring almost any other major religion or sect and be confident of a positive or at least polite response. Not so with Catholicism.

Vogt, therefore, like Rod Dreher of The Benedict Option, positions traditional Christianity as the one true counter-culture of our time, something it’s becoming harder and harder to deny. He is aiming at a US audience, but this shouldn’t get in the way of non-Americans with an open mind appreciating what Vogt has to say.

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